New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1887-01-17
EVILS OF CHILD LABOR.
PROF. ADLER DENoUNCEs THE SYSTEM

PROF. ADLER DENOUNCES THE SYSTEM
MORE SCHOOLING FOR CHILDREN AND MANUAL
TRAINING NEEDED.
Professor Felix Adler lectured on Child Labor
Yesterday morning before the Society for Ethical
Culture in Chickering Hall. The hall vas over
crowded many people standing in the gallery aisles
Professor Adler began by quoting sentence from
q Social Problems" in which the author, Henry
George maintained that no worked for the pleas
ure ohvorking but only for the results TO secured
iy work. From this notion ne dissented entirely.
There was no pleasure equal to that derived from
work well done. With the student who pores
foreign tongue, the fnancier who is immersed in
the problems of exchange and trade it was the pur-
suit OF the end the mastery now OF one DETAIL now of
another the anticipation OF success that brought the
pleasure, not the fruit of the completed task.
There was no Joy comparable to that OF conscientious
effort and success and if pleasure was to be defined
at all it should he called the sensation which results
from the successful exercise of one OF our faculties or
OF them all.
But there we're well-defned bounds to the labor
which brings its own pleasure with it. Pleasure
could never follow mere dull drudgery or on ex-
cessve, unnatural toll. l: could not accompany the
labor OF child whose powers were not yet matnred
and whose working in childhood was bound to unfit IL
for the real work Of after lite. He had already given
4 startlipQ OF figures 10 snow the extent ana
epormity OF child labor in New-York. lie could add
a fsw more now, through the kindness ut we'll known
worker among the poor. This lady had noted IN her
recent visits the tenement house districts o3o girls
between ten and twelve years old. who had been put
regularly to work. And OF the go only sixty were
still in good health Not leng ago little Girl OF
seven years had been brought into the MI. Sinai
Hospital to be treated tor exhaustion from over
work She had served day in and day ont until abe
was takea with violent bleeding from the nose and
could work no longer. 10 another family girl OF
seven years and her grandfather. seventy years old.
were put sewing buttons on trousers ten hours day
for every day in the week. old age ana infancy beng
Of industralism. In another house two little girls.
twins OF between tour and five years. sewed buttons
nV All this was most painful and distressing Hone
worker in this big city could find 533 cases there must
be friehttul malady here Ii could not be due to
the nhumanity OF individual employers most OF them
in TACT did not know and were unwilling to know the
desttution and misery among tue or ing women ahd
children labor they boue ht IL was due on the
contrary the progress of industry and tbe inevita
bic sharpness of competition. In the unlted States
during the ten years from 1870 to 1880 the number
OF men in factories increased only 80 per cent mat
of women As per cent and that OF children 10 per
cent The advancement in machine work had
created demand for women and especially tor cni
dren in the mills and shops and unless that demand
could be met BY restrictive lie ,islation it would
satisfy itself and more by eating out the iives
of boys and girls everywhere in their tender years
A writer in "Tbe Andover Review IN leso said
that he had found man, men doing household work
in Fall River. Mas. while their wives and daughters
in the factories. In the Rhode Island towns the
condition of things still worse. the mothers
taking their little children along With them to the
mills Girls were taken at the earliest age possible
know ng life but that of constant, unhealthy toll
In the cotton and tobacco factories Of the South and
of Pennsylvania efourh of the boys and girls were
under fifteen years OF age In the mines boys OF
the mule carts the levels and even working Win
Their fathers on the nigh. shifts The result was the
king of the body and the loss OF health school
training and morals.
The tendency TO employ children plainly on the
increase Several hundreds of thousands Of boys and
girls under ten and twelve years alre ,dy at
sork There might be twice "a many in another ten
years The ounce of prevention should be applied now
Instead of waiting until pound of cure shoud become
necessary The first remedy. Professor Adler said.
was a change in the compulsory education law. Every
child bet eight and fourteen years of age satisfied
tho law now Oy going to school fourteen seek' Of the
be forced go TO school day OF the school year
Then again. child should receive better instruction
than given under the present system Many people
would have 1t that the three RS are enough. But no
argument for the teaching OF the three RS would
prove that than that should not be taught.
primary school should include manual training IN its
course.
Manual training knowledge of the use Of TOOLS
foi med an integral part OF every sort OF instruction
IL Of the utmot value tor all children for the
framing of the hand essential TO the training OF
the train. Not that the common schools should be
turned into trade schools for specdc instruction
IN the arts of the skilled workman Manual training
was elementary. valuable whatever the pupil might
10 aiterward, and 1t would be eqna, important
here were no factories at oil. IL was simply anew
Method of education though OF course OF special uso
o those who 90 INTO the trades. IL skill most Of
Ill that paupcrism The bulk OF our skilled
aborers foreigners. Americans should have an
EQUAL chance That they did prove skilled laborers
because they never had had proper training and
opportunity.
NJ, several hundred young girls buddled together
n New-lork factory. All had type face tho
octory face, call t-a pale white. as II Q shadow
Isd fallen OIL it. Not one had tint Of health or
uddness. What is religion orth in these Christian
lines when lite Is held rs cheap as water, and tho
gner faculties OF men are dragged renor-elesslJ IN
no rure Can 1t Tot transform Itself into ltfe or
eturn to the charity the brotheriiness Of Jesusf
'bers is OF mourning like Raeheis ut Ramah In
he land. 1t is humanity Weeping tor her children,
nd not to be comOrted. Lot Us try ~ comfort her
n the way we best Can.